Technological Change

Clotilde Coron, Patrick Gibert

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781119721321
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Technological change is exciting as much as it is daunting. The arrival of new digital tools affects consumption patterns, types of employment and working conditions, and can pose challenges to organizations and individuals alike. Indeed, although technological change is a factor for economic growth, it can also be an amplifier, or even a catalyst, of inequality. It is also a social change and interacts in complex ways: technology is both the source and the consequence of social transformation. To understand technological change and to harness its effects, this book studies transformations at different levels (societal, organizational and individual). In its analysis of the subject, it also draws on a number of disciplines of the human and social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology and psychology.

1
The Human and Social Sciences in the Face of Technological Change

Discourses on technological change are numerous and do not owe everything to social scientists. Engineers as well as merchants, philanthropists as well as intellectuals, have a point of view on the subject. Crossed by multiple conceptions, these discourses sometimes intersect and merge.

In order to disentangle this and to reflect the diversity of approaches, this chapter focuses firstly (section 1.1) on their summative presentation, concluding with the presentation of the anthropotechnical perspective, which shows the interdependence between technical and social factors. Inspired by this perspective, the second section examines the long history of technological change and its most recent developments (section 1.2).

1.1. Approaches to technological change

We will approach our subject according to the postulated relationship between technology and society. Technical historians have wondered whether inventions are inevitable, whether the machine makes history. But economists, on the other hand, have wondered whether it was not rather social demand that led to innovation. Sociologists have also questioned the relationship between technical innovation and social transformations. Philosophers have often been critical, but sometimes also adopted the cause of technophiles.

Following Vinck (1995), it should be noted that technology and society have generally been thought of as two distinct spheres, one of which influences the other. In relation to this conception, in a first approach, technology is seen as exerting its influence on the social sphere, which is what is referred to as technological determinism (section 1.1.1). The opposite approach assumes that the influence of society is exerted on the technology, what Vinck calls “social constructivism” (section 1.1.2). A third approach, with which we will agree, postulates the mutual influence of technical and social aspects, or even the fusion of technical and social ingredients (section 1.1.3).

We ask that the reader forgives the deliberately extreme presentation of these approaches, given that few authors claim to be clear-cut about all the hypotheses that we will highlight and that characterize each approach.

1.1.1. Technological determinism

Technological determinism takes many forms, which will justify the place we will give it, first for a general presentation and then for that of its two antagonistic orientations. This is how the debate on technology is too often concluded: a dispute between those who link the fate of the social matter to the development of technology (technophiles) and those who, on the contrary, oppose them (technophobes). Beyond these oppositions, both sides come together in the idea that technology determines social matter.

1.1.1.1. Technology as an element in determining social behavior

The founding assumptions of this approach, considered in its most absolute form, are as follows:

• – daughter of science, technology is an autonomous variable;
• – a society is determined by the technologies in use;
• – the technical evolution is linear, due to the irreversibility of the technologies;
• – for better or for worse, the technological imperative is imposed on everyone: it is inevitable and universal.

For example, Canadian historian Harold Innis (1894–1952), a pioneer in the formulation of communication theories (Innis, 1950), associates the spread of the papyrus with the development of the Roman Empire and bureaucratic power. He then states that the invention of the parchment led to a shift from places of knowledge to monasteries and a strengthening of religious power. The latter is, in turn, reduced by the invention of paper, which encouraged the development of trade in Italy and northern Europe.

Another classic author case, among the most characteristic of this trend, is that of the American sociologist William Ogburn (1886–1959) who explained that technology changes society by changing the environment to which individuals, in turn, must adapt. This change, he believed, is common in the material environment, and the adaptation we make to it often changes social mores and institutions. He deduced that inventions influence society, first by being produced in large quantities and then by being used by a large number of consumers. Ogburn devoted several studies to the specific social effects of inventions. One of his most famous analyses concerns the invention of radio, for which he listed no less than 150 effects. We provide some extracts, with the numbering assigned by this author, in Box 1.1.

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Box 1.1. The effects of the invention of radio (source: Ogburn, 1933)

I. On uniformity and diffusion

5. Distinctions between social classes and economic groups lessened.

9. Favoring of the widely spread languages.

II. On recreation and entertainment

14. The enjoyment of music popularized greatly.

20. Revival of old song, at least for a time.

III. On transportation

27. Radio beams, enabling aviators to remain on course.

34. Receipt of communications en route by air passengers.

IV. On education

38. Broadcasting has aided adult education.

48. Discussion of books aids selection and stimulates readers.

V. On the dissemination of information

56. Prevention of loss in crops by broadcasting weather reports.

64. Quicker detection of crime and criminals, through police automobile patrols equipped with radio.

VI. On religion

65. Discouragement, it is said, of preachers of lesser abilities.

68. Invalids and others unable to attend church enabled to hear religious service.

VII. On industry and business

79. A new form of advertising has been created.

84. An increase in the consumption of electricity.

85. Provision of employment for 200,000 persons.

VIII. On occupations

89. Music sales and possibly song writing have declined. Studies indicate that broadcasting is a factor.

92. New occupations: announcer, engineer, advertising salesman.

IX. On government and politics

98. New problem of copyright has arisen.

100. Executive pressure on legislatures, through radio appeals.

X. On other inventions

120. The vacuum tube, a radio invention, is used in many fields […] A new science is being developed on the vacuum tube.

125. Geophysical prospecting aided by the radio.

XI. Miscellaneous

132. The noise problem of loud speakers has caused some regulation.

135. Late hours have been ruled against in dormitories and homes.

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While determinism is no longer popular in academic circles – we will see its limits later on (see section 1.1.1.4) – this approach remains surprisingly prominent in public discourse, despite (because of?) its reductionism. Judging by the questions encountered in the press and in widely circulated books, at random: “what is the impact of ICT on business performance?”, “what are the effects of digital technologies on employment?”, “what is the influence of the Internet on doctor-patient relationships?”, etc.

Basically, this approach does not, in itself, make any value judgments about the effects of technology. This is not the case for some of its orientations, which we will now discuss. Some are very enthusiastic about the latest technologies (“promising technology”). Others are resolutely critical of one or all technologies (“technology that causes much harm”).

1.1.1.2. Technology, which holds promise

This “techno-enthusiastic” approach nurtures a glorifying vision of technology and praises new technical objects. For its supporters, the source of social progress must be sought in innovations and mainly in material inventions and discoveries, which would occur more quickly and cumulatively than intangible innovations – it should be noted that no evidence has been produced in this regard.

The engineer’s desire to register his/her invention in the world by sharing his/her passion with as many people as possible and the merchant’s desire to disseminate the new technical objects as widely as possible are united in the same fervor. So a technophile euphoria is expressed when announcing all the new features. We recall the communicative utopia celebrated in the late 1960s by media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), famous for his notion of the “global village” and his famous formula “the medi...